It’s weird space to be in. Mark Cuban and Reid Hoffman want their cake and to eat it too but at least Musk/Andreseen aren’t attempting to fool anyone.
Cuban called for Lina Khan to go from the FTC, but at the same time, he will post articles of him working/speaking with her regarding his efforts to lower healthcare prices (Khan + Tim Wu + Jonathan Kanter lowered the price of my asthma inhaler, EpiPen, and mom’s medicine — not Mark Cuban). Hoffman and Barry Diller, two of the largest democratic donors in recent times, called for her ouster as well.
Larry Summers, another major critic of Khan, pointed out the gist of your article in a recent Bloomberg interview when he was asked why rich/wealthy people keep voting and supporting Republicans despite the market and economy at large doing much better under Democratic presidents, and in turn Larry’s economic leadership within those administrations.
They like how it sounds (i.e. lower taxes) but don’t realize, or would believe even when shown the data, their value goes up less under Republicans. Because they get visual reinforcement re taxes, have a direct line to the Oval Office, can influence policy decisions easier under Republicans; Summers pointed out that these fat cats believe the Democratic Party is anti-business, anti markets.
It’s like playing 5 on 8 basketball, w/ the Republicans having extra players. The two parties, their personnel, and extended members (i.e. Hollywood/Academia/Athletes versus NRA/Fossil Fuels/UFC/WWE) receive completely separate but unequal treatment from the public & 4th Estate at large.
I feel even amongst the centerists, center-left, left-center, and leftists that our two most important leaders Obama and Clinton don’t get the proper recognition they deserve. Biden too.
Do you by any chance have an equivalent chart for Fundraising Shares, for Democrats (my team)? I'm guessing there's a similar pattern but less extreme. (Matters of degree matter!) Thanks.
One possible explanation is to think about "the billionaires" as a contested group with inconsistent membership, not a unified group that endures over time. Perhaps Democrats emphasize competition (new billionaires under Clinton, Obama), while Republicans protect incumbents (fewer new billionaires). If so, then status quo billionaires should favor Republicans, while innovators should favor Democrats.
I'm not sure how to measure that, but it seems like it might have been true up until 2024. So many of the tech entrepreneurs were fairly liberal. I don't think they only shifted because of tax reasons, Democrats also became more interested in regulating tech and cracking down on anti-trust.
Thiel turned against democracy in 2009, when tech was hardly regulated, which inspired the Yarvin/Mendacious Moldbug movement that now has installed Musk as "CEO". So I don't think this is a knee-jerk anti-Biden thing, altho it's true that they all hate Khan.
What has changed is that Thiel was a peripheral figure in 2009 but a central one in 2024. His protege (Vance) became the Veep nominee despite Trump's hesitance to embrace tech. In 2009, Elon was a nobody. In 2009, Gates was more important than Bezos; now it's the other way around and it's not even close.
Back in those days, tech was aligned with Democrats because of the importance of education to both. But then Thiel and Andreeson started attacking education. Zuck and Elon both had very lackluster academic careers to put it mildly. Bezos isn't from that world either. This went into overdrive during the BLM and Gaza protests on university campuses, which were not as salient during the 2000s.
I think the "it's a different group of people" should really really not be discounted, esp considering Elon's role in essentially buying the election for Trump so he could be "CEO" of the country.
Great post. I do not have a problem with sharing a space with Democratic billionaires, nor do I think the concept of billionaires becoming extinct is a smart one.
I think we can pair the red/blue billionaires into broad ideological groups. Especially after the last ten years where Republicans’ ideals of family values, kind and compassion, etc evaporated under Trump and Moscow Mitch.
However, it is unfortunately a bad fact for high profile blue leaders — Kamala being most poignant— that this small group is holding back America’s potential. FDR to Jimmy Carter had top income tax rates of 95% to 70%.
Our debt is enormous, and a significant amount of super rich Dems talk out of both sides of their mouths: tax me more, but a 25% capital gains tax is insanity. Biden was able to get a 1% tax on stock buybacks, but realistically a 4 to 11% tax would be ideal. American is at the point where the 1% to .001% live in a different universe than the top 12 to 2%.
Not that you don’t know this but I think saying that Democratic billionaires want competition, through antitrust or taxes, is at least half-wrong.
There are many that are still liberal they just aren’t as vocal/attention seeking like others. 1 of the 3 Airbnb founders just donated 100 million to Obama’s foundation and sits on the board. Another board member, Sean Parker, of Napster and Facebook, is still very liberal. And Parker says he should be getting taxed a lot more.
Bill Gates, Barry Diller, and Hoffman don’t like all the antitrust enforcement but they did not switch sides.
I do agree with you that it is a mixed bag though. Palmer Lucky (i think thats his name) is in his early 30s, a billionaire, and has been a republican forever, while Diller is in his 80s and has been a democrat forever. Bloomberg actually has done a reverse shift from Republican to Democratic.
I don’t really believe that Bezos or Zuckerberg have changed their ideologies much insomuch they needed to curry favor with Trump who holds a vendetta against them. I just think they care about expanding their companies and making more money. They play both sides of aisle.
Musk, is a big change. But Musk, bet on Obama for a business move i.e. hearing Obama say clean energy is the future, so he donated/promoted which led to him getting half a billion in a loan from a struggling at the time Tesla after Obama could make no headway with a larger green & clean economic bill. Musk’s buddies Peter Thiel, Larry Ellison, and David Sachs have always been Republicans.
power is never given, it must be taken....
It’s weird space to be in. Mark Cuban and Reid Hoffman want their cake and to eat it too but at least Musk/Andreseen aren’t attempting to fool anyone.
Cuban called for Lina Khan to go from the FTC, but at the same time, he will post articles of him working/speaking with her regarding his efforts to lower healthcare prices (Khan + Tim Wu + Jonathan Kanter lowered the price of my asthma inhaler, EpiPen, and mom’s medicine — not Mark Cuban). Hoffman and Barry Diller, two of the largest democratic donors in recent times, called for her ouster as well.
Larry Summers, another major critic of Khan, pointed out the gist of your article in a recent Bloomberg interview when he was asked why rich/wealthy people keep voting and supporting Republicans despite the market and economy at large doing much better under Democratic presidents, and in turn Larry’s economic leadership within those administrations.
They like how it sounds (i.e. lower taxes) but don’t realize, or would believe even when shown the data, their value goes up less under Republicans. Because they get visual reinforcement re taxes, have a direct line to the Oval Office, can influence policy decisions easier under Republicans; Summers pointed out that these fat cats believe the Democratic Party is anti-business, anti markets.
It’s like playing 5 on 8 basketball, w/ the Republicans having extra players. The two parties, their personnel, and extended members (i.e. Hollywood/Academia/Athletes versus NRA/Fossil Fuels/UFC/WWE) receive completely separate but unequal treatment from the public & 4th Estate at large.
I feel even amongst the centerists, center-left, left-center, and leftists that our two most important leaders Obama and Clinton don’t get the proper recognition they deserve. Biden too.
Rich people don’t want to pay taxes because of their arrogance; they feel put upon and angry that anything be asked of them.
Do you by any chance have an equivalent chart for Fundraising Shares, for Democrats (my team)? I'm guessing there's a similar pattern but less extreme. (Matters of degree matter!) Thanks.
Yep. You can find it here: https://bsky.app/profile/adambonica.bsky.social/post/3lhmrwbjlk22y
The better question maybe - “What is wrong with democrats?”
Billionnaires wielding power, indeed!
For some background, read my recent piece about oligarchy in America:
https://thecplan.substack.com/p/what-the-american-oligarchy-really
One possible explanation is to think about "the billionaires" as a contested group with inconsistent membership, not a unified group that endures over time. Perhaps Democrats emphasize competition (new billionaires under Clinton, Obama), while Republicans protect incumbents (fewer new billionaires). If so, then status quo billionaires should favor Republicans, while innovators should favor Democrats.
I'm not sure how to measure that, but it seems like it might have been true up until 2024. So many of the tech entrepreneurs were fairly liberal. I don't think they only shifted because of tax reasons, Democrats also became more interested in regulating tech and cracking down on anti-trust.
Thiel turned against democracy in 2009, when tech was hardly regulated, which inspired the Yarvin/Mendacious Moldbug movement that now has installed Musk as "CEO". So I don't think this is a knee-jerk anti-Biden thing, altho it's true that they all hate Khan.
What has changed is that Thiel was a peripheral figure in 2009 but a central one in 2024. His protege (Vance) became the Veep nominee despite Trump's hesitance to embrace tech. In 2009, Elon was a nobody. In 2009, Gates was more important than Bezos; now it's the other way around and it's not even close.
Back in those days, tech was aligned with Democrats because of the importance of education to both. But then Thiel and Andreeson started attacking education. Zuck and Elon both had very lackluster academic careers to put it mildly. Bezos isn't from that world either. This went into overdrive during the BLM and Gaza protests on university campuses, which were not as salient during the 2000s.
I think the "it's a different group of people" should really really not be discounted, esp considering Elon's role in essentially buying the election for Trump so he could be "CEO" of the country.
Great post. I do not have a problem with sharing a space with Democratic billionaires, nor do I think the concept of billionaires becoming extinct is a smart one.
I think we can pair the red/blue billionaires into broad ideological groups. Especially after the last ten years where Republicans’ ideals of family values, kind and compassion, etc evaporated under Trump and Moscow Mitch.
However, it is unfortunately a bad fact for high profile blue leaders — Kamala being most poignant— that this small group is holding back America’s potential. FDR to Jimmy Carter had top income tax rates of 95% to 70%.
Our debt is enormous, and a significant amount of super rich Dems talk out of both sides of their mouths: tax me more, but a 25% capital gains tax is insanity. Biden was able to get a 1% tax on stock buybacks, but realistically a 4 to 11% tax would be ideal. American is at the point where the 1% to .001% live in a different universe than the top 12 to 2%.
Not that you don’t know this but I think saying that Democratic billionaires want competition, through antitrust or taxes, is at least half-wrong.
There are many that are still liberal they just aren’t as vocal/attention seeking like others. 1 of the 3 Airbnb founders just donated 100 million to Obama’s foundation and sits on the board. Another board member, Sean Parker, of Napster and Facebook, is still very liberal. And Parker says he should be getting taxed a lot more.
Bill Gates, Barry Diller, and Hoffman don’t like all the antitrust enforcement but they did not switch sides.
I do agree with you that it is a mixed bag though. Palmer Lucky (i think thats his name) is in his early 30s, a billionaire, and has been a republican forever, while Diller is in his 80s and has been a democrat forever. Bloomberg actually has done a reverse shift from Republican to Democratic.
I don’t really believe that Bezos or Zuckerberg have changed their ideologies much insomuch they needed to curry favor with Trump who holds a vendetta against them. I just think they care about expanding their companies and making more money. They play both sides of aisle.
Musk, is a big change. But Musk, bet on Obama for a business move i.e. hearing Obama say clean energy is the future, so he donated/promoted which led to him getting half a billion in a loan from a struggling at the time Tesla after Obama could make no headway with a larger green & clean economic bill. Musk’s buddies Peter Thiel, Larry Ellison, and David Sachs have always been Republicans.
Can you share more of your statistical analysis?